Formula One racers, including McLaren star Jenson Button, have threatened to boycott Sunday's German Grand Prix if there is a repeat of the Pirelli tyre blow-out of Silverstone.
Button and the other worried drivers have issued the warning after an emergency meeting of the entire grid in the Nurburgring paddock following five dramatic blowouts during the British Grand Prix last weekend and shredded tyres on other cars, the Mirror reports.
Even though the under-fire tyre manufacturers have made the changes to the tyres, however, the F1 aces said that the drivers expected that the changes made to the tyres will have the desired results and that similar problems will not occur during the German GP weekend.
The drivers further said that if similar problems should manifest themselves during the German GP, they would withdraw from the event immediately so as not to endanger the lives of drivers, marshals and fans with this avoidable problem.
Leading the drivers' concerns as he slammed Pirelli's claims that the F1 teams are at fault for the exploding tyres that wrecked the British GP, Button said that even though McLaren remained within the correct boundaries of what Pirelli told them to do, they had two failures on their car.
However, Button, who is a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, also said that it is good that Pirelli have brought new tyres, citing the Italian tyre giants' decision to bring back reinforced kevlar-belted rubber from Friday's first practice.
Agreeing with Button, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton, whose chance of victory at Silverstone went up in smoke with a blown rear tyre on lap eight while leading, said that the tyres were still a problem.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel also joined the drivers' insistence that the jury was still out on the new tyres until they had been tested here, adding that it is difficult to judge at this stage how different the new tyres would be.
Former F1 ace David Coulthard also raised his voice, saying that the tyre explosions are 'driver killers'.
